ALBUM EXPECTED TO MAKE BIG WAVES

Hurriyet
1304.asp?gid=244
May 21 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – Kalan Music is releasing a new album that will become a hot
topic in Turkey. The album is named ‘Meds Yeghern – 1915 Oratorio’ and
includes music by world-renowned Armenian composer Khacadur Avedisyan.

The owner of ethnic Anatolian music label Kalan Music is preparing
to release a controversial album by world-renowned Armenian composer
Khacadur Avedisyan. Bound to be a hot topic, the album, titled "Meds
Yeghern – 1915 Oratorio," was dedicated to the incidents that took
place between the Ottomans and Armenians in 1915.

"I have attempted to release the album in Turkey for many years,"
Hasan Saltuk, owner of Kalan Music, told the Hurriyet Daily News &
Economic Review. "It was not easy to reach the composer’s family. Also,
there were no original records of the album."

Saltuk accidentally found the original records during a trip to
Paris. With the help of a friend’s son from the Netherlands, Saltuk
reached Avedisyan’s son, Mikayel Avedisyan. He then encountered another
problem. The composer willed that the album should be released only
with the title "Genocide – 1915 Oratorio."

Although Saltuk barely persuaded Avedisyan about the issue, he came
up with a new idea. They decided to release the album with the title
"Meds Yeghern – 1915 Oratorio" rather than "Genocide – 1915 Oratorio."

The Armenian expression "Meds Yeghern," meaning "great catastrophe,"
which was used by U.S. President Barack Obama on April 24 to refer to
the events of 1915, has caused much debate in Turkey. Saltuk said
he was ready for the big discussions that might occur after the
album’s release.

"We want to prove that albums like this can be released in Turkey,"
he said. "This CD will show that the 1915 incidents can be discussed
in the country. In this way, the diaspora’s political argument used
against Turkey will disappear."

Our fight is for freedom of thought

Saltuk said Turkey has been developing and modernizing very rapidly
and that he would not have been able to release an album like that in
the 1990s. "I was sued many times because we released music belonging
to different Anatolian ethnic cultures in their original languages,"
he said. "Today the state clearly talks about the issues for which
I have been tried in the past."

Saltuk said problems could be overcome only by talking: "Our fight
is to ban the bans."

Saltuk said the album included seven songs performed by the Armenian
National Radio National Instruments Group and the Armenian National
Radio Chamber Music. He said the album was precious in a musical
sense and that he was happy to add it to Kalan Music’s archive.

About Khacadur Avedisyan

Khacadur Avedisyan was born in 1926 in Armenian’s second largest town,
Gyumri. At 25, he was the first Armenian artist to win gold medals at
international competitions in Berlin and Moscow. As well as classical
music, he worked on Armenian folk music and played traditional folk
instruments. He formed the folk music unit at the Gomidas National
Conservatory in Yerevan in 1978. He worked as the art director of
the National Dance Group and later for Tatul Altunyan Music and Dance
Group in 1958. He continued composing music at the same time.